Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[BobwhiteQuailLover]

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She kinda looks like a Cheetah with those spots. How about Cheetah?

Yeah!!
Too many names to choose!

 

[Terri O]

Alright! I am angry now! I just wrote a really long reply about how things were looking up...Dh fixed computer etc etc complete with praise...messages to all; and my computer shut off and restarted to install updates? Dam*--OK I am going to bed so I dont try to retypw the whole thing and then it wont sound right anyhow...Raiquee, you made me laugh! I said dont worry about a bra...someone else said "tuck 'em in your pants!"

Regardless your DH will still love you!
Goodnight everyone--looking forward to spending a day or 2 with my GF hugging her puppies, talking, cooking and drinking and more talking! LOL--sweet dreams everyone--no shooting in Taco Bell or anywhere else! Terri O

 

[Hurley]

Well, no pips or cheeping from my little showgirl/silkie eggs in lock down and due to hatch today...trying not to obscess and hoping for the best, so I decided to compile my research on Iowa Blues. Since they don't have an official standard, but I need an "ideal" to shoot for, spent some time this evening trying to compile "Hurley's Breed Standard for the Iowa Blue". So looking forward to getting my first ones this spring!

(Compiled from the various websites on Iowa Blues on the internet and from Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds.)

Iowa Blue

The Iowa Blue was developed in the first half of the 20th century near Decorah, Iowa and was carried by many small hatcheries around Iowa until those hatcheries closed down and the breed was nearly lost. Through the efforts of interested breeders striving to preserve the breed, the Iowa blue is a very rare breed in need of preservation. Having never been recognized by the APA, ABA, or any other breed registry, the Iowa Blue is classified as a "Study" breed by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, acknowledging that the breed is of conservation interest but lacks the documentation to be firmly categorized.

Although the exact origin of the Iowa Blue is not known, legend has it that a White Leghorn hen appeared out from under a building one day with a clutch of chicks unlike any seen before. Some were solid chestnut, but others resembled pheasant chicks, colored light yellow with horizontal striping on their cheeks and black stripes down their backs. The tale was passed down by the old-timers that the sire of the clutch was a pheasant, giving the breed an interesting, folksy legend as to its origination.

They are one of the more striking New Heritage breeds, resembling Grey Junglefowl in carriage and voice with the bearing and production traits of an old heritage breed like the Black Java.

Country of Origin: United States
Conservation Status: Study
Type of Breed: Dual-purpose, good amount of meat
Eggs: Good number of lightly tinted brown eggs
Cocks: 7 to 7.5 pounds (Cockerels 6.5 pounds)
Hens: 6 pounds (Pullet 5 pounds)
Characteristics: Good foragers; do well in free range conditions with males being excellent flock guardians and are noted to be talented hawk fighters. Hens will go broody and have great maternal instincts. Though very aware of surroundings in a free-range situation, are fairly docile and not particularly flighty.

Comb: Medium to moderately large single comb with six well-defined points that stand upright.
Wattles: Medium to moderately large wattles and earlobes, all being bright red.
Beak: Horn
Shanks and Toes: Slate
Color: Birchen. Head is white to silvery white. Neck and upper breast are white penciled with slender black central stripe transitioning to solid black feathers with white lacing. Lower breast, body, legs, wings, and tail are bluish black to gray with penciling. Lower breast should not be over-laced. Males show white to silvery white back and saddle area. Females have a back that is bluish to gray with penciling.

Can be used to create sex-links when mated with other breeds, especially White Plymouth Rocks (producing gray cockerels and black pullets) or New Hampshires (producing reddish gray cockerels and blackish gray pullets).


Also found some advice that I plan to keep in mind while working on my future Iowa Blue flock that I found helpful (from a birchen cochin breeder):

With birchens you will for the most part have to double mate them, meaning that you will have a breeding pen that will produce good males and another pen that will produce good females. Breed males with very little or no breast lacing to good laced or overly lace females to produce good males. Likewise, breed weak laced females to overly laced males with good yellow legs and light undercolor to achieve nicely colored females. In both cases the females out of the first breeding or the males out of the second breeding won't be fit for show due to color but they may be used in the breeding pens to achieve the same results.

 

[Hens and Roos]

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Interesting, good luck and keep us up dated as to how things are going with them!
Also good luck on your hatch!

 

[Hens and Roos]

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I know how that goes when the computer decides it break time and you weren't ready for it!

 

[Dr HaHa]

Good Morning All!

rearrolled what a nice surprise to hear from you. Hear of flooding down your way hope your not affected! Stop in and visit anytime. So many posts! Seems like everyone needs to get outside more. Including me. ODrH that's quite a project you have there! Think Peatwo needs another lesson on how to behave, yesterday went into the appartment to retrive Btwo's egg and he gave me a whack on the back of the hand. Being cooped up in that small space is gettin to him I think. Pretty soon their gonna have to learn to survive with the others. Haven't plowed for the last couple of snows waiting for more to do so. Then the ground will be bare and they can all come out to play. The others come out to go to the woodshed and to pick scraps that I throw out by the back door the slws don't seem to mind it as much. Going to make bread today amongst the million other things. I don't know about the rest of you but we went through this deciding where to meet thing last year and it's driving me nuts! Would really like to figure out a place and stick with it every year.

Hope you all have a very good day!

 

[BigBadCryBaby]

Good Mornig BYCers,

Thought I'd just drop in and say Hi....I've been keeping up on the reading but very difficult to find the time to write. I hope everyone has a great weekend, and Go Pack!

 

[BobwhiteQuailLover]

Who else set some eggies today??

 

[Terri O]

Good morning everyone. Just a minute to type some and then get everyone fed outside and off to my mini vacation at my GF's. I am excited! THis is what I am giving her for her birthday present:

Yes I finally did it...pickled button quail eggs for her Martinis! I am presenting the jar in a martini glass with little picks to put the eggs on. So fun...and are they ever GOOD! Now that I have done this I am starting to collect button eggs to hatch...I dont see Mr Silver doing "his business" too often so I am not sure about fertility. Time will tell I guess! Besides, I really should ge that 'bator up and running and try it out before my shipped eggs arrive! *she foolishly tells herself*

ODrH--that project sounds fun! If you need another person to help I would like to try something like that. The double breeding stuff is the same thing that they say on the Marans thread (I think it was that--or the Favs thread) to get the right color of hens and roos for showing. I wonder if there is any truth to the pheasant thing? I know guineas and chickens can cross so why not right? You need to start an Iowa Blue thread too...or maybe you have already done so? Good luck!

Gotta run--DrH--I vote for Bigz's camp! Do we need more opinions....we have 5 or 6 already that will drive "wherever"...make it a done deal?

Have a fantastic day! Terri O

 

[WIChookchick]

YUM YUM!!
I just got my lower locks changed, and put a hasp and lock on my outside basement entrance.
Not as hard as they claim .LOL.
The reason, we had an acquaintance staying with us, he lived in the basement, left lights on, heat running, I would be woken up at midnight or later as he is
yelling into the phone at who ever he is calling (cell phone) OR to adult entertainment turned WAAAAYYY up..
I had asked him repeatedly to turn it down/off, to NOT smoke in there, to throw away his cigarette butts, his empty cans (soda and beer), WHich he didn't do.
To simply wipe his feet OR carry his boots from one door to the next so he didn't track mud or snow across the house...
AND alot of other things...
He still has a key, and needs to move stuff out of the basement, although we have said we will hold it no charge till spring.
After getting a GINORMOUS electric bill, and having asked for months/weeks for him to turn things off/down...
AND he stole my nieces christmas present. That was it.. and being drunk christmas eve, sleeping on our couch...

He left, and I texted him about giving him 2 weeks notice (he is not on the lease). He then brings his former GF's oldest daughter over and are downstairs.
(he has kids w/ ex GF)
He had brought her over before, but I didn't know it, she is 14, and we thought from the noise they were making, it was a new GF...the person stayed overnight.
Turns out it was the 14 yr old, who stayed downstairs, they had a tickle fight, blah blah blah.. IN OUR HOUSE!!
So.. he said to hubby that they would leave around 6, over an hour later, they still hadn't left. SO I called her mom, and then texted him twice, to take her home.
I was not comfortable with having her stay the night, in a place that only had 1 bed...
needless to say he only has stayed one night since then.
ACK!!! SOOO glad he is gone..
I had asked him to get rid of a cracked flat screen t.v., he dragged down there to see if he could fix.. his idea of "getting rid" of it.. he dumped it behind some book cases we
had sitting down there... GRRRRRRRR

Needless to say WE WILL NEVER do that again!